This video shows the Renault Kwid owner driving his Kwid on petrol and electric powertrains. The YouTuber has posted the video of the Kwid that has an electric motor installed in it in addition to the petrol engine. This is slowly becoming the trend these days to install an additional electric motor and a battery pack to the vehicles. The reason is quite straightforward. People are frustrated with the astronomical increase in petrol and diesel prices. There are many cities in India, where petrol costs more than Rs 100 per litre. This is something completely unheard of just a couple of years ago. People are forced to look for alternatives. That has also caused many people to switch to the CNG versions of some cars. Others have gone all-out of installing an additional electric motor to their cars. The car can be driven on both the powertrains independently. Here are all the details.
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Renault Kwid with Petrol and Electric Powertrains
This Kwid truly falls under the category of the aftermarket hybrid vehicle which is capable of running on any of the two engines. The supplementary electric motor is installed inside the rear wheels. The motor drives the rear wheel while the petrol engine drives the front wheels. But it is not an all-wheel-drive system because only one powertrain is operational at a time. The range on the electric mode is a healthy 150 km if driven sensibly. That is quite an impressive number and could if application in the city usage. For highways, one can switch to the traditional petrol engine. In this way, the driver is able to experience the best of both worlds.
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There are quite a few start-ups that specialize in retrofitting an electric motor on an IC engine-powered vehicle. This installation was done by a company called Hymotiv which specializes in retrofitting technologies in already existing vehicles to tackle the mileage and emission issues. As a part of the degradation package, they have also installed all four disc brakes in this Kwid. All the other aspects including the exteriors and interiors are left the same. The Kwid continues to come with an option of either a 5-speed manual or an AMT transmission.
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As a result of this installation, the fuel efficiency/mileage of the car has been improved by a whopping 20% percent. It must be said here that to improve the mileage by that much is not a mean feat. Additionally, for the duration of the electric-only operation, there will be no tailpipe emissions. This is great for the environment, especially in city use.
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